2 BIOTIC STRUCTURE AND BIOTIC ENERGY 



alternations are usually much, slower than those commonly dealt 

 with in the world of inorganic physics and chemistry. As long as 

 life lasts there is no complete cessation in the flow of energy; 

 but always in all living things there are alternating periods of 

 activity and repose, of waking and sleeping, of action and reaction, 

 of freshness and of fatigue. 



These slower and more prolonged periods of oscillation are 

 characteristic of life. In the inorganic world, either the phases are 

 infinitely shorter, as in the various forms of radiant energy, or, on 

 the other hand, the phases in some instances may be of so vast 

 duration that we never see the swing of the pendulum, and are 

 prone to come to the conclusion, probably quite erroneously, that 

 the process must run irreversibly in one direction for ever. For 

 example, the physicist supposes that all forms of energy in the 

 Universe are moving in one direction namely, into heat energy 

 and towards an equal distribution of heat potential that is, 

 temperature throughout the entire space. Now, if we judge by 

 analogy, this can only represent a movement of the energy flux 

 in one direction, an oscillation which is so long in its duration as to 

 appear infinite to us mortals. When all the temperatures have 

 become equal, then may come the reversal, and all the energy move- 

 ments, slowly at first, but ever quickening, may move in the opposite 

 direction, and then there would be a new type of life in the Universe 

 regulated by conditions now unknown to us. 



Returning to the peculiar energy discharges of that singular 

 energy transformer called a living cell, it may be pointed out that, 

 in its varying phases of activity and rest, the machine is always 

 in equilibrium, although, to maintain this, it may be working from 

 time to time at a faster or slower rate. The index of equilibrium 

 is set higher or lower, but there always is an index or equilibrium 

 point. Also, there are maximum and minimum points; there is a 

 rate above which the machine cannot be driven without breakdown, 

 and also, unlike inorganic transformers, there is a rate below which 

 it cannot work without such alterations in the living machine as 

 lead to disruption and death. 



In the complex, co-ordinated animal there is protection against 

 overdriving or underdriving by a most elaborate system of defences, 

 especially in those tissues responsible for the fundamental processes 

 of respiration and circulation of the blood. If either the heart 

 stopped beating, so that fresh blood did not reach the tissue cells, or 



